Homepage
Login
Profile
BookClubs
dmBox
Read Ebook: The Philosophy of Teaching The Teacher The Pupil The School by Sands Nathaniel
Font size:
Background color:
Text color:
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page Prev Page
Ebook has 86 lines and 13537 words, and 2 pages
TO MAGNUS GROSS, Esq.,
DEAR SIR,--I have observed with surprise, and with a sense of deep regret, that the proposition is entertained by a large number of the Trustees of filling the chair of Latin and Greek, now vacant, and even of establishing separate chairs for each, at the College of the City of New York; involving, with the necessary tutors, an outlay of not less than ,000 per annum. The subject in all its bearings is one of too vast importance to be treated in the ordinary method of discussion by the Committee, and I therefore beg leave to place my views in writing, to insure their receiving more matured consideration than oral observations could secure.
I pass over the question as to the propriety of sustaining at all, at the enforced expense of the public, an educational institution to supply the needs which the College of the City of New York is intended to meet. The College exists by law; we are its guardians, and the only question we have to consider is, how most efficiently and most economically to secure the attainment of the ends desired by the Legislature.
These ends we shall no doubt all agree to be--first: that any of the youth of this city possessed of special talents, but lacking means for their cultivation, may have placed within their reach an education the best possible for the development of their powers for the benefit of themselves and of the community; and, second, to provide for the comparatively well-to-do the means of pursuing useful studies in compensation for compelling them to provide for the instruction of their less fortunate citizens.
As it is self-evident that whatever course of studies will tend to secure the first of these ends will tend also to secure the second and less important, we are spared the necessity of a two-fold investigation.
A very few statistics suffice to show that neither of these ends has been hitherto attained by the College of the City of New York.
It is immaterial what year we select for examination, the numbers which follow will be found to bear about the same relative proportions in every year. I quote from the Trustees' Report for 1866 merely because it is the latest document at hand which furnishes the numbers in the different classes and of the graduates; from this report I find, that while there were three hundred and eighty-one students in the introductory class, only twenty-five graduated in that year. The number of graduates in 1867 was thirty, and twenty-nine in July, 1868. Of the three hundred and eighty-one who composed the introductory class in 1866, one hundred and fifty-one left the College during the year, and doubtless the two hundred and thirty who remained will have dwindled to about twenty-five or thirty by the year 1871.
Let us examine the course of studies, as given from pages 8 to 14 of the Report of the Board of Trustees for the year 1866, or from pages 24 to 28 of the Manual of the College.
On examining the course for the introductory and freshman classes, a feeling of astonishment must fill the mind at the marked want of wisdom by which it was dictated, but which at the same time affords a sufficient explanation for the abandonment of the College by its students.
I purposely abstain from saying any thing as to the method of instruction, which is the converse of that adopted by nature, and as a consequence signally fails. This has been so forcibly put by President Barnard, of Columbia College, that I need only refer the members of our Committee to his essay on "Early Mental Training, and the Studies best fitted for it."
Restrained again from quotation by the fear of wearying the Committee, permit me to refer them to the lecture of Dr. Hodgson, delivered at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, on "The Importance of the Study of Economic Science," which will be found in the work of Professor Youmans, on "The Culture demanded by Modern Life."
I confess to a feeling of deep discouragement at the perusal of such a record as that presented by the course of studies at the College of the City of New York, especially when I find that this is the state of things a large number of the Trustees seem desirous of perpetuating. My views on this subject are confirmed by the following remarks found in President Barnard's Essay on "Early Mental Training, and the Studies best fitted for it."
I might go through the whole course of studies with similar results. Here and there, in this or that class, a small amount of attention is given to some of the sciences omitted in the other classes; but the entire record is one of the most disheartening character.
What, then, are the reasons generally assigned for this perverse conventionalism of devoting the time of youth to the acquirement of dead words, to the unavoidable exclusion of nearly every thing that is of value? First, we are told that we can not understand the English language without a knowledge of Latin, from which it is derived. The inaccuracy of this pretension is at once made manifest by reference to Webster, where he states:
"That English is composed of--
"The Danish and Welsh also are primitive words, and may be considered as a part of our vernacular language. They are of equal antiquity with the Chaldee and Syriac."
But even were it true that our language was derived from the Latin, wherein lies the difficulty in the way of the teacher explaining to his pupils the meanings of the parts of English words which are of Latin origin, without the necessity of the pupil's acquiring the same knowledge by the roundabout process of learning one thousand words he will never need, for one that may at some time be to him of some service as a mnemonic?
He who is ignorant of anatomy can not appreciate either sculpture or painting! A knowledge of optics, of botany and of natural history, are necessary, equally to the artist or to the connoisseur; a knowledge of acoustics to the musician and musical critic. "No artist," says Mr. Spencer, "can produce a healthful work of whatever kind without he understands the laws of the phenomena he represents; he must also understand how the minds of the spectator or listener will be affected by his work--a question of psychology." The spectator or listener must equally be acquainted with the laws of such phenomena, or he fails to attain to the highest appreciation.
I now come to the last and most serious aspect of this question, and I fearlessly assert that classical studies have a most pernicious influence upon the morals and character of their votaries.
It should not be forgotten that Greeks and Romans alike lived by slavery , by rapine, and by plunder; yet we, born into a Christian community which lives by honest labor, propose to impregnate the impressionable minds of youth with the morals and literature of nations of robbers!
Neither is it without importance as a guide to ourselves to observe that in the very best school in this country--a school perhaps not surpassed by any in the world, viz., the Military Academy at West Point--neither Latin nor Greek studies are permitted.
Our duty to the people is clear; let us neither waste the precious time of our youth on worse than useless studies, nor the money of the citizens on worse than useless expenditure.
I do earnestly hope that our Committee will give to my observations their most serious deliberation. Let us come to no hasty conclusion on this subject: accustomed as we have been to hear constantly repeated such conventional phrases as that "Latin and Greek are essential to the education of a gentleman;" that "classical studies are indispensable to a liberal education;" to hear applauded to the echo orators who have introduced into their speeches quotations of bad Latin or worse Greek by audiences of whom not one in one thousand understand what was said. We have been apt to receive such phrases as embodying truths, without ever examining their foundations. I respectfully urge the Committee to consider well before they act, to study the reasons assigned by the great thinkers I have named for condemning, as, humbly following in their wake, I venture to condemn, as worse than mere waste of time, the years devoted to Latin and Greek studies.
Let us endeavor to make the College of this city worthy of the city and of the state; let us cast aside the trammels of mediaeval ignorance, and supply to the pupils of the College "the culture demanded by modern life." Let us in this, the first important matter which has come before our Committee, act in harmony and without prejudice, for the welfare of the College and "for the advancement of learning," and so prove ourselves worthy of the sacred trust we have assumed.
I am, dear sir, very truly yours,
NATHANIEL SANDS,
THE TEACHER, THE PUPIL, THE SCHOOL.
BY NATHANIEL SANDS.
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE, NEW YORK.
WORKS ON EDUCATION
PUBLISHED BY
HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK.
EVERETT ON PRACTICAL EDUCATION. Importance of Practical Education and Useful Knowledge: being a Selection from the Orations and Discourses of EDWARD EVERETT, President of Harvard University. 12mo, Cloth, 50.
Transcriber's Notes:
Additional spacing after block quotes is intentional to indicate both the end of a quotation and the beginning of a new paragraph as presented in the original text.
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page Prev Page